No / Purpose: The immobilisation and restraint of children to facilitate radiographic examination is a controversial issue that has been relatively ignored by radiography research. The aim of this study was to begin to fill this gap by providing a description of restraint used in a limited number of clinical sites in order to highlight any perceived need for training, policies or guidelines in the use of child immobilisation and restraint. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design using a postal questionnaire was adopted. One hundred and sixty-seven questionnaires were distributed to radiographers employed within six hospital Trusts. Results: A response rate of 83.2% (n=139/167) was achieved. Ninety-three percent (93.5%, n=130/139) of respondents indicated that restraining techniques were used although only 19.2% (n=25/130) had received specific training in safe restraining techniques and 7.9% (n=11/139) in distraction techniques as an alternative to restraint. A need for further guidance and support for clinical staff was evident with 73.3% (n=74/101) of respondents identifying a need for specific guidelines and 84.6% (n=110/130) indicating that further training opportunities were required. Conclusions: The use of restraint in paediatric plain film radiography is an apparently widespread practice and support for clinical radiographers through the development of training opportunities and practice guidelines are seen as essential in order to promote high quality paediatric radiography practices.

The relaxation of restrictions on the type of professions that can report films has resulted in radiographers and other healthcare professionals becoming increasingly involved in image interpretation in areas such as mammography, ultrasound and plain-film radiography. Little attention, however, has been given to sample size determinations concerning film-reading performance characteristics such as sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Illustrated with hypothetical examples, this paper begins by considering standard errors and confidence intervals for performance characteristics and then discusses methods for determining sample size for studies of film-reading performance. Used appropriately, these approaches should result in studies that produce estimates of film-reading performance with adequate precision and enable investigators to optimize the sample size in their studies for the question they seek to answer.